The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of St. Paul

The spiritual nature of Maya. Krishna - the Light-Halo of Christ. The Risen One.

DURING this course of lectures we have brought before our souls two
remarkable documents of humanity, although necessarily described very
briefly on account of the limited number of lectures; and we have seen
what impulses had to flow into the evolution of mankind in order that
these two significant documents, the sublime Gita and the Epistles of
St. Paul, might come into existence. What it is important for us to
grasp is the essential difference between the whole spirit of the Gita
and that of the Epistles of St. Paul. As we have already said: 
in the Gita we have the teachings that Krishna was able to give to his
pupil Arjuna. Such teachings can only be given and should only be
given to one person individually, for they are in reality exactly what
they appear in the Gita; teachings of an intimate nature. On the other
hand, it may be said that they are now within the reach of anyone,
because they appear in the Gita. This naturally was not the case at
the time the Gita was composed. They did not then reach all ears; they
were then only communicated by word of mouth. In those old days
teachers were careful to ascertain the maturity of the pupil to whom
they were about to communicate such teachings; they always made sure
of his being ready for them. In our time this is no longer possible as
regards all the teachings and instructions which have in some way come
openly to light. We are living in an age in which the spiritual life
is in a certain sense public. Not that there is no longer any occult
science in our day, but it cannot be considered occult simply because
it is not printed or spread abroad. There is plenty of occult science
even in our day. The scientific teaching of
Fichte,
for instance, although everyone can procure it in printed form, is really a
secret teaching; and finally
Hegel's
philosophy is also a secret doctrine,
for it is very little known and has indeed many reasons in it for
remaining a secret teaching; and this is the case with many things in
our day. The scientific teaching of Fichte and the philosophy of Hegel
have a very simple method of remaining secret doctrine, in that they
are written in such a way that most people do not understand them, and
fall asleep if they read the first pages. In that way the subject
itself remains a secret doctrine, and this is the case in our own age
with a great deal which many people think they know. They do not know
it; thus these things remain secret doctrine; and, in reality, such
things as are to be found in the Gita also remain secret doctrine,
although they may be made known in the widest circles by means of
printing. For while one person who takes up the Gita today sees in it
great and mighty revelations about the evolution of man's own inner
being, another will only see in it an interesting poem; to him all the
perceptions and feelings expressed in the Gita are mere trivialities.
For let no one think that he has really made what is in the Gita his
own, although he may be able to express in the words of the Gita
itself what is contained in it, but which may itself be far removed
from his comprehension. Thus the greatness of the subject itself is in
many respects a protection against its becoming common. What is
certain is that the teachings which are poetically worked out in the
Gita are such that each one must follow, must experience them for
himself, if, through them, he wishes to rise in his soul, and finally
to experience the meeting with the Lord of Yoga, with Krishna. It is
therefore an individual matter; something which the great Teacher
addresses to one individual alone. It is a different thing when we
consider the contents of the Epistles of St. Paul from this point of
view. There we see that all is for the community, all is matter
appealing to the many. For if we fix our attention upon, the innermost
core of the essence of the Krishna-teaching we must say: What one
experiences through this teaching, one experiences for oneself alone,
in the strictest seclusion of one's own soul, and one can only have
the meeting with Krishna as a lonely soul-wanderer, after one has
found the way back to the original revelations and experiences of
mankind. That which Krishna can give must be given to each individual.

This is not the ease with the revelation given to the world through
the Christ-Impulse. From the beginning the Christ-Impulse was intended
for all humanity, and the Mystery of Golgotha was not consummated as
an act for the individual soul alone; but we must think of the whole
of mankind from the very beginning to the very end of the earth's
evolution, and realise that what happened at Golgotha was for all men.
It is to the greatest possible extent a matter for the community in
general. Therefore the style of the Epistles of St. Paul, apart from
all that has already been characterised, must be quite different from
the style of the sublime Gita. Let us once more picture clearly the
relationship between Krishna and Arjuna. He gives his pupil
unequivocal directions as Lord of Yoga as to how he can rise in his
soul in order to attain the vision of Krishna. Let us compare with
this a specially pregnant passage in the Pauline Epistles, in which a
community turn to St. Paul and ask him whether this or that was true,
whether this could be considered as giving the right views about what
he had taught. In the instructions which St. Paul gives, we find a
passage which may certainly be compared in greatness, even in artistic
style with what we find in the sublime Gita; but at the same time we
find quite a different tone, we find everything spoken from quite a
different soul-feeling; It is where St. Paul writes to the Corinthians
of how the different human gifts to be found in a group of people must
work in cooperation. To Arjuna, Krishna says Thou must be so and
so, thou must do this or that, then wilt thou rise stage by stage in
thy soul-life. To his Corinthians St. Paul says: One of
you has this gift, another that, a third another; and if these work
harmoniously together, as do the members of the human body, the result
is spiritually a whole which can spiritually be permeated with the
Christ. Thus through the subject itself St. Paul addresses
himself to men who work together, that is to say, to a multitude; and
he uses an important opportunity to do this-namely, when the gift of
the so-called speaking with tongues comes under consideration.

What is this speaking with tongues that we find spoken of in St.
Paul's Epistles? It is neither more nor less than a survival of old
spiritual gifts, which, in a renewed way, but with full human
consciousness, confront-us again at the present time. For when, among
our initiation-methods, we speak of Inspiration, it is understood that
a man who attains to inspiration in our age does so with a clear
consciousness; just as he brings a clear consciousness to bear upon
his powers of understanding and his sense-realisations. But in olden
times this was different, then such a man spoke as an instrument of
high spiritual beings who made use of his organs to express higher
things through his speech. He might sometimes say things which he
himself could not understand at all. Thus revelations from the
spiritual worlds were given, which were not necessarily understood by
him who was used as an instrument, and just that was the case in
Corinth. The situation had there arisen of a number of persons having
this gift of tongues. They were then able to make this or that
prediction from the spiritual worlds. Now when a man possesses such
gifts everything he is able to reveal by their means is under all
circumstances a revelation from the spiritual world, yet it may,
nevertheless, be the case that one man may say this and another that,
for spiritual sources are manifold, One may be inspired from one
source and another from another, and thus it may happen that the
revelations do not correspond. Complete harmony can only be found when
these worlds are entered in full consciousness. Therefore St. Paul
gives the following admonition: Some there are who can speak with
tongues, others who can interpret the words spoken. They should work
together as do the right and left hands, and we should not only listen
to those who speak with tongues, but also to those who have not that
gift, but who can expound and understand what someone is able to bring
down from the spiritual sphere. Here again St. Paul was urging
the question of a community which might be founded through the united
working of men. In connection with this very speaking with tongues St.
Paul gave that address which, as I have said, is in certain respects
so wonderful that in its might it may well compare, though in a
different way-with the revelations of the Gita. He says (1 Cor. xii.
verses 3-31): As regards the spiritually gifted brethren, I will
not leave you without instructions. You know that in the time of your
heathendom, it was to dumb idols that you were blindly led by desire.
Wherefore I make clear to you: that just as little as one speaking in
the Spirit of God says: Accursed be Jesus; so little can a man call
Him Lord but through the Holy Spirit. Now there are diversities of
gracious gifts, but there is one Spirit. There are diversities in the
guidance of mankind, but there is one Lord. There are differences in
the force which individual men possess; but there is one God Who works
in all these forces. But to every man is given the manifestation of
the Spirit, as much as he can profit by it. So to one is given the
word of prophecy, to another the word of knowledge; others are spirits
who live in faith; again others have the gift of healing, others the
gift of prophecy, others have the gift of seeing into men's
characters, others that of speaking different tongues, and to others
again is given the interpretation of tongues; but in all these worketh
one and the same Spirit, apportioning to each one what is due to him.
For as the body is one and hath many members, yet all the members
together form one body, so also is it with Christ. For through the
Spirit we are all baptised into one body, whether Jew or Greek, bond
or free, and have all been imbued with one spirit; so also the body is
not made of one but of many members. If the foot were to say: Because
I am not the hand therefore I do not belong to the body, it would none
the less belong to it. And if the ear were to say: Because I am not
the eye I do not belong to the body, none the less does it belong to
the body. If the whole body were only an eye, where would be the
hearing? If the whole body were a sense of hearing, where would be the
power of smell? But now hath God set each one of the members in the
body where it seemed good to Him. If there were only one member, where
would the body be? But now there are truly many members, but there is
only one body. The eye may not say to the hand: I do not require thee!
nor the head to the feet  I have no need of you; rather those
which appear to be the feeble members of the body are necessary, and
those which we consider mean prove themselves to be specially
important. God has put the body together and has recognised the
importance of the unimportant members that there should be no division
in the body, but that all the members should work harmoniously
together and should care for one another. And if one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it, and it one member prosper, all the
members rejoice with it. But ye, said St. Paul to his
Corinthians, are the Body of Christ, and are severally the
members thereof. And some God hath set in the community as apostles,
others as prophets, a third part as teachers, a fourth as miraculous
healers, a fifth for other activities in helping, a sixth for the
administration of the community, and a seventh He set aside to speak
with tongues. Shall all men be prophets, shall all men be apostles,
shall all be teachers, all healers, shall all speak with tongues, or
shall all interpret? Therefore it is right for all the gifts to work
together, but the more numerous they are the better.

Then Paul speaks of the force that can prevail in the individual but
also in the community, and that holds all the separate members
together as the strength of the body holds the separate members of the
body together. Krishna says nothing more beautiful to one man than St.
Paul spoke to humanity in its different members. Then he speaks of the
Christ-Power, which holds the different members together just as the
body holds its different members together; and the force that can live
in one individual as the life-force in every one of his limbs, and yet
lives also in a whole community; that is described by St. Paul in
powerful words: Nevertheless I will show you, says he,
the way that is higher than all else. If I could speak with
tongues of men or of angels and have not love, my speech is but as
sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, and if I could prophesy and
reveal all secrets and communicate all the knowledge in the world, and
if I had all the faith that could remove mountains themselves and had
not love, it would all be nothing. And if I distributed every
spiritual gift, yea, if I gave my body itself to be burnt, but were
lacking in love, it would all be in vain. Love endureth ever. Love is
kind. Love knoweth not envy. Love knoweth not boasting, knoweth not
pride. Love injureth not what is decorous, seeketh not her own
advantage, doth not let herself be provoked, beareth no one any
malice, doth not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth only in
truth. Love envelopeth all, streameth through all beliefs, hopeth all
things, practiseth toleration everywhere. Love, if it existeth, can
never be lost. Prophesies vanish when they are fulfilled, what is
spoken with tongues ceases when it can no longer speak to human
hearts; what is known ceases when the subject of knowledge is
exhausted, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child; when
I became, a man the world of childhood was past. Now we only see dark
outlines in a mirror, but then we shall see the spirit face to face;
now is my knowledge in part, but then I shall know completely, even as
I myself am known. Now abideth Faith, the certainty of Hope, and Love;
but Love is the greatest of these, hence Love is above all. For if you
could have all spiritual gifts, whoever himself understands prophecy
must also strive after love; for whoever speaks with tongues speaks
not among men, he speaks among Gods. No one understands him, because
in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. We see how St. Paul
understands the nature of speaking with tongues. His meaning is: The
speaker with tongues is transported into the spiritual worlds; he
speaks among Gods. Whoever prophesies speaks to men to build up, to
warn, to comfort; he who speaks with tongues, to a certain extent
satisfies himself; he who prophesies builds up the community. If you
all attain to speaking with tongues, it is yet more important that you
should prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with
tongues, for he who speaks with tongues must first understand his own
speaking, in order that the community should do so. Supposing that I
came to' you as a speaker with tongues, of what use should I be to you
if I did not tell you what my speaking signifies as prophecy, teaching
and revelation! My speaking would be like a flute or a zither, of
which one could not clearly distinguish the sounds. How could one
distinguish the playing of either the zither or of the flute if they
did not give forth distinct sounds? And if the trumpet gave forth an
indistinct sound, who would arm himself to battle? So it is with you;
if you cannot connect a distinct language with the tongue-speaking, it
is all merely spoken into the air.

All this shows us that the different spiritual gifts must be divided
amongst the community, and that the members as individuals, must work
together. With this we come to the point at which the revelation of
Paul, through the moment in human evolution in which it appears, must
differ absolutely from that of Krishna. The Krishna-revelation is
directed to one individual, but in reality applies to every man if he
is ripe to tread the upward path prescribed to him by the Lord of
Yoga; we are more and more reminded of the primeval ages of mankind,
to which we always, according to Krishna-teaching, return in spirit.
At that time men were less individualised, one could assume that for
each man the same teaching and directions would be suitable. St. Paul
confronted mankind when individuals were becoming differentiated, when
they really had to become differentiated, each one with his special
capacity, his own special gift. One could then no longer reckon on
being able to pour the same thing into each different soul; one had
then to point to that which is invisible and rules over all. This,
which lives in no man as a separate individual, although it may be
within each one, is the Christ-Impulse. The Christ-Impulse, again, is
something like a new group-soul of humanity, but one that must be
consciously sought for by men. To make this clearer, let us picture to
ourselves how, for instance, a number of Krishna students are to be
distinguished in the spiritual worlds, from a number of those who have
been moved in the deepest part of their being by the Christ-Impulse.
The Krishna pupils have every one of them been stirred by one and the
same impulse, which has been given them by the Lord of Yoga. In
spiritual life each one of these is like the other. The same
instructions have been given to them all. But those who have been
moved by the Christ-Impulse, are each, when disembodied and in the
spiritual world, possessed of their own particular individuality,
their own distinct spiritual forces. Therefore even in the spiritual
world, one man may go in one direction and one in another; and the
Leader of both, the One Who pours Himself into the soul of each one,
no matter how individualised he may be, is the Christ, Who is in the
soul of each one and at the same time soars above them all. So we
still have a differentiated community even when the souls are
discarnate, while the souls of the Krishna pupils, when they have
received instructions from the Lord of Yoga, are as one unit. The
object of human evolution, however, is that souls should become more
and more differentiated.

Therefore it was necessary that Krishna should speak in a different
way. He really speaks to his pupils just as he does in the Gita. But
St. Paul must speak differently. He really speaks to each individual,
and it is a question of individual development whether, according to
the degree of his maturity, a man remains at a certain stage of his
incarnation at a standstill in exoteric life, or whether he is able to
enter the esoteric life and raise himself into esoteric Christianity.
We can go further and further in the Christian life and attain the
utmost esoteric heights; but we must start from something different
from what we start from in the Krishna-teaching. In the
Krishna-teaching you start from the point you have reached as man, and
raise the soul individually, as a separate being; in Christianity,
before you attempt to go further along the path you must have gained a
connection with the Christ-Impulse-feeling in the first place that
this transcends all else. The spiritual path to Krishna can only be
trodden by one who receives instructions from Krishna; the spiritual
path to Christ can be trodden by anyone, for Christ brought the
mystery for all men who feel drawn towards it. That, however, is
something external, accomplished on the physical plane; the first step
is, therefore taken on the physical plane. That is the essential
thing. Truly one need not, if one looks into the world-historical
importance of the Christ-Impulse, begin by belonging to this or that
Christian denomination; on the contrary one can, just in our time,
even start from an anti-Christian standpoint, or from one of
indifference towards Christ. Yet if one goes deeply into the spiritual
life of our own age, examining the contradictions and follies of
materialism, perhaps one may genuinely be led to Christ, even though
to begin with one may not have belonged to any particular creed.
Therefore when it is said outside our circle that we are starting from
a peculiar Christian denomination, this must be regarded as a special
calumny; for it is not a matter of starting from any denomination, but
that in response to the demands of the spiritual life itself,
everyone, be he Mahommedan or Buddhist, Jew or Hindu, or Christian,
shall be able to understand the Christ-Impulse in its whole
significance for the evolution of mankind. This desire we can see
deeply penetrating the whole view and presentation of St. Paul, and in
this respect he is absolutely the one who sets the tone for the first
proclamation of the Christ-Impulse to the world.

As we have described how Sankhya philosophy concerns itself with the
changing forms, with that which appertains to Prakriti, we may also
say that St. Paul, in all that underlies his profound Epistles, deals
with Purusha, that which pertains to the soul. What the soul is to
become, the destiny of the soul, how throughout the whole evolution of
mankind it evolves in manifold ways, concerning all this St. Paul
gives us quite definite and profound conclusions. There is a
fundamental difference between what Eastern thought was still able to
give us, and what we find at once with such wonderful clearness in St.
Paul. We pointed out yesterday that, according to Krishna, everything
depended on man's finding his way out of the changing forms. But
Prakriti remains outside, as something foreign to the soul. All the
striving in this Eastern method of development and even in the Eastern
initiation, tends to free one from material existence' from that which
is spread outside in nature; for that, according to the
Veda-philosophy, is merely maya. Everything external is maya, and to
be free from maya is Yoga. We have pointed out how in the Gita it is
expected of man that he shall become free from all he does and
accomplishes, from what he wills and thinks, from what he likes and
enjoys, and in his soul shall triumph over everything external. The
work that man accomplishes should equally fall away from him, and thus
resting within himself, he shall find satisfaction. Thus, he who
wishes to develop according to the Krishna teaching, aspires to become
something like a Paramahamsa, that is to say, a high Initiate who
leaves all material existence, behind him, who triumphs over all he
has himself accomplished by his actions in this world of sense; and
lives a purely spiritual existence, having so overcome what belongs to
the senses that he no longer thirsts for reincarnation, that he has
nothing more to do with what filled his life and at which he worked in
this sense-world. Thus it is the issuing forth from this maya, the
triumphing over it which meets us everywhere in the Gita, With St.
Paul it is not so.

If he had met with these Eastern teachings, something in the depth of
his soul would have caused the following words to come forth:
Yes, thou wishest to rise above all that surrounds thee outside,
from that also which thou formerly accomplished there! Dost thou wish
to leave all that behind thee? Is not then all that the work of God,
is not everything above which thou wishest to lift thyself created by
the Divine Spirit? In despising that, art thou not despising the work
of God? Does not the revelation of God's Spirit dwell everywhere
within it? Didst thou not at first seek to represent God in thine own
work, in love and faith and devotion, and now desirest thou to triumph
over what is the work of God?

It would be well, my dear friends, if we were to inscribe these words
of St. Paul-which though unspoken were felt in the depths of his
soul-deeply into our own souls; for they express an important part of
what we know as Western revelation. In the Pauline sense, we too speak
of the maya which surrounds us. We certainly say: We are surrounded by
maya: but we also say: Is there not spiritual revelation in this maya,
is it not all divine spiritual work? Is it not blasphemy to fail to
understand that there is divine spiritual work in all things? Now
arises the other question: Why is that maya there -? Why do we see
maya around us? The West does not stop at the question as to whether
all is maya: it inquires as to the wherefore of maya. Then follows an
answer that leads us into the centre of the soul  into Purusha:
Because the soul once came under the power of Lucifer it sees
everything through the veil of maya and spreads the veil of maya over
everything. Is it the fault of objectivity that we see maya? No. To us
as souls objectivity would appear in all its truth, if we had not come
under the power of Lucifer. It only appears to us as maya because we
are not capable of seeing down into the foundations of what is spread
out there. That comes from the soul's having come under the power of
Lucifer; it is not the fault of the Gods, it is the fault of our own
soul. Thou, O soul, hast made the world a maya to thyself, because
thou hast fallen into the power of Lucifer. From the highest spiritual
grasp of this formula, down to the words of Goethe: The senses
do not deceive, but the judgment deceives, is one straight line.
The Philistines and zealots may fight against Goethe and his
Christianity as much as they like; he might nevertheless say that he
is one of the most Christian of men, for in the depths of his being he
thought as a Christian, even in that very formula: The senses do
not deceive, but the judgment deceives. It is the soul's own
fault that what it sees appears as maya and not as truth. So that
which in Orientalism appears simply as an act of Gods themselves, is
diverted into the depths of the human soul, where the great struggle
with Lucifer takes place.

Thus Orientalism, if we consider it aright, is in a certain sense
materialism, in that it does not recognise the spirituality of maya,
and wishes to rise above matter. That which pulses through the
Epistles of St. Paul is a doctrine of the soul, although only existing
in germ and therefore capable of being so mistaken and misunderstood
as in our Tamas-time, but it will in the future be visibly spread out
over the whole earth. This, concerning the peculiar nature of maya,
will have to be understood; for only then can one understand the full
depth of that which is the object of the progress of human evolution.
Then only does one understand what St. Paul means when he speaks of
the first Adam, who succumbed to Lucifer in his soul, and who was
therefore more and more entangled in matter-which means nothing else
than this: ensnared in a false experiencing of matter. As God's
creation external matter is good: what takes place there is good. But
what the soul experiences in the course of human evolution became more
and more evil, because in the beginning the soul fell into the power
of Lucifer. Therefore St. Paul called Christ the Second Adam, for He
came into the world untempted by Lucifer, and therefore He can be a
guide and friend to men's souls, who can lead them away from Lucifer,
that is, into the right relationship to Him. St. Paul could not tell
mankind at that time all that he as an Initiate knew; but if we allow
his Epistles to work on us we shall see that there is more in their
depths than they express externally. That is because St. Paul spoke to
a community, and had to reckon with the understanding of that
community. That is why in certain of his Epistles there seem to be
absolute contradictions. But one who can plunge down into the depths,
finds everywhere the impulse of the Christ-Being. Let us here
remember, my dear friends, how we ourselves have represented the
coming into existence of the Mystery of Golgotha. As time went on we
recognised that there were two different stories of the youth, of
Christ Jesus, in the Gospel of St. Matthew and that of St. Luke,
because in reality there are two Jesus-boys in question. We have seen
that externally  after the flesh, according to St. Paul, which
means through physical descent  both Jesus-boys descended from
the stock of David; that one came from the line of Nathan and the
other from that of Solomon; that thus there were two Jesus-boys born
at about the same time. In the one Jesus-child, that of St. Matthew's
Gospel, we find Zarathustra reincarnated: and we have emphatically
stated that in the other Jesus-child, the one described by St. Luke,
there was no such human ego as is usually to be found, and certainly
not as the one existing in the other Jesus-child, in whom lived such a
highly evolved ego as that of Zarathustra. In the Luke-Jesus there
actually lives that part of man that has not entered into human
evolution on the earth. *[See also The Spiritual Guidance of
Mankind, the Gospel of St. Luke, the Gospel of St.
Matthew.]

It is rather difficult to form a right conception of this but we must
just try to think how, so to speak, the soul that was incarnated in
Adam, he who may be described as Adam in the sense of my
Occult Science
succumbed to Lucifer's temptation, symbolically described
in the Bible as the Fall of Man in Paradise. We must picture this.
Then we must picture further, that side by side with that human
soul-nature which incarnated in Adam's body, there was a human part, a
human being, that remained behind and did not then incarnate, that did
not enter a physical body, but remained pure soul. You
need only now picture how, before a physical man arose in the
evolution of humanity, there was one soul, which then divided itself
into two parts. The one part, the one descendant of the common soul,
incarnated in Adam and thus entered into the line of incarnations,
succumbed to Lucifer, and so on. As to the other soul, the
sister-soul, as it were, the wise rulers of the world saw beforehand
that it would not be good that this too should be embodied; it was
kept back in the soul world; it did not therefore take part in the
incarnations of humanity, but was kept back. With this soul none but
the Initiates of the Mysteries had intercourse. During the evolution
preceding the Mystery of Golgotha this soul did not, therefore, take
into itself the experience of an ego, for this can only be obtained
by incarnating in a human body. None the less, it had all the Wisdom
that could have been attained through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon
periods, it possessed all the love of which a human soul is capable.
This soul remained blameless, as it were, of all the guilt that a man
can acquire in the course of his incarnations in human evolution. It
could not be met with as a human being externally; but it could be
perceived by the old clairvoyants, and was recognised by them: they
encountered it, so to say, in the mysteries Thus, here we have a soul,
one might say, that was within, but yet above, the evolution of
mankind, that could at first only be perceived in the spirit; a
pre-man, a true super-man.

It was this soul which, instead of an ego, was incarnated in the
Jesus-child of St. Luke's Gospel. You will remember the lectures at
Bale; this fact was already given out there. We have therefore to do
with a soul that is only ego-like, one that naturally acts as an ego
when it permeates the body of Jesus: but which in all it displays is
yet quite different from an ordinary ego. I have already mentioned the
fact that the boy of St. Luke's Gospel spoke a language understood by
his mother as soon as he came into the world, and other facts of
similar nature were to he observed in him. Then we know that the
Matthew-Jesus, in whom lived the Zarathustra ego, grew up until his
twelfth year, and the Luke-child also grew up, possessing no
particular human knowledge or science, but bearing the divine wisdom
and the divine power of sacrifice within him. Thus the Luke-Jesus grew
up not being particularly gifted for what can be learnt externally. We
know further that the body of the Matthew-Jesus was forsaken by the
Zarathustra ego, and that in the twelfth year of the Luke-Jesus his
body was taken possession of by that same Zarathustra-ego. That is the
moment referred to when it is related of the twelve-year-old Jesus of
Luke's Gospel, that when his parents lost him he stood teaching before
the wise men of the Temple. We know further that this Luke-Jesus bore
the Zarathustra ego within him up to his thirtieth year; that the
Zarathustra ego then left the body of the Luke-Jesus, and all its
sheaths were taken possession of by Christ, a superhuman Being of the
higher Hierarchies, Who only could live in a human body at all
inasmuch as a body was offered Him which had first been permeated up
to its twelfth year with the pre-human Wisdom-forces, and the
pre-human divine Love-forces, and was then permeated through and
through by all that the Zarathustra ego had acquired through many
incarnations by means of initiation. In no other way, perhaps, could
one so well obtain the right respect, the right reverence, in short,
the right feeling altogether for the Christ-Being, as by trying to
understand what sort of a body was needed for this Christ-Ego to be
able to enter humanity at all. Many people consider that in this
presentation, given out of the holy mysteries of the newer age about
the Christ-Being, He is thus made to appear less intimate and human
than the Christ-Jesus so many have honoured in the way in which He is
generally represented-familiar, near to man, incarnate in an ordinary
human body in which nothing like a Zarathustra ego lived. It is
brought as a reproach against our teaching that Christ-Jesus is here
represented as composed of forces drawn from all regions of the
cosmos. Such reproaches proceed only from the indolence of human
perception and human feeling which is unwilling to raise itself to the
true heights of perception and feeling. The greatest of all must be so
grasped by us that our souls have to make the supremest possible
efforts to attain the inner intensity of perception and feeling
necessary to bring the Greatest, the Highest, at all near to our soul.
Our first feelings will thus be raised higher still, if we do but
consider them in this light. We know one other thing besides. We know
how we have to understand the words of the Gospel: Divine forces
are being revealed in the Heights, and peace will spread among men of
goodwill. We know that this message of peace and love resounded
when the Luke-Jesus appeared, because Buddha intermingled with the
astral body of the Luke-Jesus; Buddha, who had already lived in a
being who went through his last incarnation as Gautama Buddha and had
risen to complete spirituality. So that in the astral body of the
Luke-Jesus, Buddha revealed himself, as he had progressed up to the
occurrence of the Mystery of Golgotha on earth.

Thus we have the Being of Christ Jesus presented before us in a way
only now possible to mankind from the basis of occult science. St.
Paul, although an Initiate, was compelled to speak in concepts more
easily understood at that time; he could not then have assumed a
humanity able to understand such concepts as we have brought before
your hearts today. His inspiration, however, was derived from his
initiation, which came about as an act of grace. Because he did not
attain this through regular schooling in the old mysteries, but by
grace on the road to Damascus when the risen Christ appeared to him,
therefore I call this initiation one brought about by grace. But he
experienced this Damascus Vision in such a way that by means of it he
knew that He Who arose in the Mystery of Golgotha lives in the sphere
of this earth and has been attached to it since that Event. He
recognised the risen Christ. From that time on he proclaimed Him. Why
was he able to see Him in the particular way he did? At this point we
must enter somewhat into the nature of such a vision, such a
manifestation as that of Damascus: for it was a vision, a
manifestation of a quite peculiar kind. Only those people who never
wish to learn anything of occult facts consider all visions as being
of one kind. They will not distinguish such an occurrence as the
vision of St. Paul from many other visions such as appeared to the
saints later. What really was the reason that St. Paul could recognise
Christ as he did when He appeared to him on the way to Damascus? Why
did the certain conviction come to him that this was the risen Christ?
This question leads us back to another one: What was necessary in
order that the whole Christ-Being should be able completely to enter
into Jesus of Nazareth, at the baptism by John in the Jordan? Now, we
have just said what was necessary to prepare the body into which the
Christ-Being could descend. But what was necessary in order that the
Arisen One could appear in such a densified soul-form as he appeared
in to St. Paul? What, then, so to speak, was that halo of light in
which Christ appeared to St. Paul before Damascus? What was it? Whence
was it taken?

If we wish to answer these questions, my dear friends, we must add a
few finishing touches to what I have already said. I have told you
that there was, as it were, a sister-soul to the Adam-soul, to that
soul which entered into the sequence of human generations. This
sister-soul remained in the soul world. It was this sister-soul that
was incarnated in the Luke-Jesus. But it was not then incarnated for
the first time in a human body in the strictest sense of the words, it
had already been once incarnated prophetically. This soul had already
been made use of formerly as a messenger of the holy mysteries; it
was, so to say, cherished and cultivated in the mysteries, and was
sent whenever anything specially important to man was taking place;
but it could only appear as a vision in the etheric body, and could
only be perceived, strictly speaking, as long as the old clairvoyance
remained. In earlier ages that still existed. Therefore this old
sister-soul of Adam had no need at that time to descend as far as the
physical body in order to be seen. So it actually appeared on earth
repeatedly in human evolution: sent forth by the impulses of the
mysteries, at all times when important things were to take place in
the evolution of the earth; but it did not require to incarnate, in
ancient times, because clairvoyance was there. The first time it
needed to incarnate was when the old clairvoyance was to be overcome
through the transition of human evolution from the third to the fourth
Post-Atlantean age, of which we spoke yesterday. Then, by way of
compensation, it took on an incarnation, in order to be able to
express itself at the time when clairvoyance no longer existed. The
only time this sister-soul of Adam was compelled to appear and to
become physically visible, it was incorporated, so to speak, in
Krishna; and then it was incorporated again in the Luke-Jesus. So now
we can understand how it was that Krishna spoke in such a superhuman
manner, why he is the best teacher for the human ego, why he
represents, so to speak, a victory over the ego, why he appears so
psychically sublime. It is because he appears as human being at that
sublime moment which we brought before our souls in the lecture before
last, as Man not yet descended into human incarnations. He then
appears again to be embodied in the Luke-Jesus. Hence that perfection
that came about when the most significant world-conceptions of Asia,
the ego of Zarathustra and the spirit of Krishna, were united in the
twelve-year-old Jesus described by St. Luke. He who spoke to the
learned men in the Temple was therefore not only Zarathustra speaking
as an ego, but one who spoke from those sources from which Krishna at
one time drew Yoga; he spoke of Yoga raised a stage higher; he united
himself with the Krishna force, with Krishna himself, in order to
continue to grow until his thirtieth year. Then only have we that
complete, perfected body which could be taken possession of by the
Christ. Thus do the spiritual currents of humanity flow together. So
that in what happened at the Mystery of Golgotha, we really have a
co-operation of the most important leaders of mankind, a synthesis of
spirit-life. When St. Paul had his vision before Damascus, He Who
appeared to him then was the Christ. The halo of light in which Christ
was enveloped was Krishna. And because Christ has taken Krishna for
His own soul-covering through which He then works on further,
therefore in the light which shone there, in Christ Himself, there is
all that was once upon a time contained in the sublime Gita. We find
much of that old Krishna-teaching, although scattered about, in the
New Testament revelations. This old Krishna-teaching has on that
account become a personal matter to the whole of mankind, because
Christ is not as such a human ego belonging to mankind, but to the
Higher Hierarchies, Thus Christ belongs also to those times when man
was not yet separated from that which now surrounds him as material
existence, and which is veiled to him in maya through his own
Luciferic temptation. If we glance back over the whole of evolution,
we shall find that in those olden times there was not yet that strict
division between the spiritual and the material; material was then
still spiritual, and the spiritual  if we may say so 
still manifested itself externally. Thus because, in the
Christ-Impulse, something entered into mankind which completely
prevented such a strict separation as we find in Sankhya philosophy
between Purusha and Prakriti, Christ becomes the Leader of men out of
themselves and towards the divine creation. Must we then say that we
must unconditionally give up maya now that we recognise that it seems
to be given us through our own fault? No, for that would be
blaspheming the spirit in the world; that would be assigning to matter
properties which we ourselves have imposed upon it with the veil of
maya. Let us rather hope that when we have overcome in ourselves that
which caused matter to become maya, we may again be reconciled with
the world.

For do we not hear resounding out of the world around us that it is a
creation of the Elohim, and that on the last day of creation they
considered: and behold, all was very good? That would be the karma to
be fulfilled if there were nothing but Krishna-teaching (for there is
nothing in the world that does not fulfil its karma). If in all
eternity there had been only the teaching of Krishna, then the
material existence which surrounds us, the manifestation of God of
which the Elohim at the starting-point of evolution said: Behold
all was very good, would encounter the judgment of men: It
is not good, I must abandon it! The judgment of man would be
placed above the judgment of God. We must learn to understand the
words which stand as a mystery at the outset of evolution; we must not
set the judgment of man above the judgment of God. If all and
everything that could cling to us in the way of guilt were to fall
away from us, and yet that one fault remained, that we slandered the
work of the Elohim; the earth-Karma would have to be fulfilled; in the
future everything would have to fall upon us and karma would have to
fulfil itself thus. In order that this should not happen, Christ
appeared in the world, so to reconcile us with the world that we may
learn to overcome Lucifer's tempting forces, and learn to penetrate
the veil; that  we may see the divine revelation in its true
form; that we may find the Christ as the Reconciler, Who will lead us
to the true form of the divine revelation, so that through Him we may
learn to understand the primeval words: And behold, it is very
good. In order that we may learn to ascribe to ourselves that
which we may never again dare to ascribe to the world, we need Christ;
for if all our other sins could be taken away from us: yet this sin
could only be removed by Him. This, transformed into a moral feeling,
is a newer side of the Christ-Impulse. It shows us at the same time
why the necessity arose for the Christ-Impulse as the higher soul to
envelope itself in the Krishna-Impulse.

An exposition such as I have given you in this course, my dear
friends, should not be taken as mere theory, merely as a number of
thoughts and ideas to be absorbed; it should be taken as a sort of New
Year's gift, a gift which should influence our New Year, and from now
on it should work as that which we can perceive through the
understanding of the Christ-Impulse, in so far as this helps us to
understand the words of the Elohim, which resound down to us from the
starting point, from the very primeval beginning of the creation of
our earth. And look upon the intention of the course at the same time
as the starting point of our Anthroposophical spiritual stream. This
must be Anthroposophical because by means of it will be more and more
recognised how man can in himself attain to self-knowledge . He
cannot yet attain to complete self-knowledge, not yet can Anthropos
attain to knowledge of Anthropos, man to the knowledge of man, so long
as this man can consider what he has to carry out in his own soul as
an affair to be played out between him and external nature. That the
world should appear to us to be immersed in matter is a thing the Gods
have prepared for us, it is an affair of our own souls, a question of
higher self-knowledge; it is something that man must himself recognise
in his own manhood, it is a question of Anthroposophy, by means of
which we can come to the perception of what theosophy may become to
mankind. It should be a feeling of the greatest modesty which impels a
man to belong to the Anthroposophical movement; a modesty which says:
If I want to spring over that which is an affair of the human soul and
to take at once the highest step into the divine, humility may very
easily vanish from me, and pride step in, in its place; vanity may
easily install itself May the Anthroposophical Society also be a
starting point in this higher moral sphere; above all, may it avoid
all that has so easily crept into the theosophical movement, in the
way of pride, vanity, ambition, and want of earnestness in receiving
that which is the highest Wisdom. May the Anthroposophical Society
avoid all this because from its very starting point, it has already
considered that the settlement with maya is an affair for the human
soul itself.

One should feel that the Anthroposophical Society ought to be the
result of the profoundest human modesty. For out of this modesty
should well up deep earnestness as regards the sacred truths into
which it will penetrate if we betake ourselves into this sphere of the
super-sensible, of the spiritual. Let us therefore understand the
adoption of the name Anthroposophical Society in true
modesty, in true humility, saying to ourselves Let all that remains of
that pride and lack of modesty, vanity, ambition and untruthfulness,
that played a part under the name of Theosophy, be eradicated, if now,
under the sign and device of modesty, we begin humbly to look up to
the, Gods and divine wisdom, and on the other hand dutifully to study
man and human wisdom, if we reverently approach Spiritual Science, and
dutifully devote ourselves to Anthroposophy. This Anthroposophy will
lead to the divine and to the Gods. If by its help we learn in the
highest sense to look humbly and truthfully into our own selves and
see how we must struggle against all maya and error through
self-training and the severest self-discipline, then, as written on a
bronze tablet may there stand above us the word: Anthroposophy! Let
that be an exhortation to us, that above all we should seek through it
to acquire self-knowledge, modesty, and in this way endeavour to erect
a building founded upon truth, for truth can only blossom if
self-knowledge lays hold of the human soul in deep earnestness. What
is the origin of all vanity, of all untruth? The want of
self-knowledge. From what alone can truth spring, from what can true
reverence for divine worlds and divine wisdom alone come? From true
self-knowledge, self-training, self-discipline. Therefore may that
which shall stream and pulsate through the Anthroposophical movement
serve that purpose. For these reasons this particular course of
lectures has been given at the starting point of the Anthroposophical
movement, and it should prove that there is no question of narrowness,
but that precisely through our movement we can extend our horizon over
those distances which comprise Eastern thought also. But let us take
this humbly in self-educative anthroposophical fashion, by creating
the will within us to discipline and train ourselves. If
Anthroposophy, my dear friends, be taken up among you in this way, it
will then lead to a beneficial end and will attain a goal that can
extend to each individual and every human society for their welfare.
So let these words be spoken which shall be the last of this course of
lectures, but something of which perhaps many in the coming days will
take away with them in their souls, so that it may bear fruit within
our Anthroposophical movement, within which you, my dear friends,
have, so to speak, met together for the first time. May we ever so
meet together in the sign of Anthroposophy, that we have the right to
call upon words with which we shall now conclude, words of humility
and of self-knowledge, which we should now at this moment place as an
ideal before our souls.